Gonzales City Council approves new tax rate

The Gonzales City Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting Thursday, Sept. 8, at City Hall for the annual approval of the city budget and tax rate.

The council approved, by a 4-1 vote, adopting the ad valorem tax rate (0.3117 per $100 value) for the 2022-23 budget year; this will be a decreased tax rate from last year’s tax rate. This year’s budget will raise more revenue from property taxes than last year’s budget by $42,034, a 2.44 percent increase.

The overall tax rate for the city decreased largely due to an increase in valuations for the city from the Gonzales Central Appraisal District.

The council approved the following budget-related agenda items:

• approved the operating budget for the city of Gonzales and the GEDC of the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2022 and ending Sept. 23, 2023.

• approved authorizing and adopting the investment policy for the city of Gonzales.

• approved adopting the city of Gonzales rate and fee schedule for various city services (please see fee change story on page 7).

In other council business, they approved the following agenda items:

• approved authorizing the city manager to execute addendum five to the agreement with GVEC for the electric utility operations, day-to-day maintenance services and meter data collection.

• approved authorizing the city manager to execute addendum one to the agreement with Frontier Access, LLC (Frontier Waste Solutions) for solid waste collection and disposal services.

• approved the city manager to enter into an interlocal cooperative agreement between counties associated with Operation Lone Star for law enforcement services.

• approved authorizing the city manager to submit, and accept if awarded, an application with associated documents to the public safety office: criminal justice division, through the office of the governor, up to $305,870 for an operation Lone Star Grant Fund.

• approved an administrative service agreement with the Gonzales Economic Development Corporation (GEDC).

• approved creation of both the job descriptions and amendments to ll current position classifications for fiscal year 2022-23.

• approved authorizing improvements of the hydro electric plant in the amount to not exceed $89,905

• approved to reschedule the Thursday, Nov. 10, city council meeting to Thursday, Nov. 17.

• approved ratifying the adoption of the National Management System (NIMS) as the standard for incident management.